Crow - Benjamin Dwyer
Echo II - Roger Smalley
Vox Balaenae - George Crumb
Susan Doyle (flutes), William Butt (cello) and Alison Thomas (piano) played music for amplified instruments and piano in this first concert in the Mostly Modern series.
Roger Smalley - British-born but resident in Australia - wrote Echo II, for cello and stereo tape delay system, in 1978. A three-part polyphony created by two differently delayed relays of the live cello sound is intriguing. Yet this composition, the first of three such works Smalley wrote between 1978 and 1983, tends to suggest possibilities rather than sustain them.
Crow (1999), by the Mostly Modern director, Benjamin Dwyer, opens with a recorded reading of Ted Hughes's poetry. The subsequent music for flutes (originally recorders) and tape alludes to the poetry and includes explicit quotations from Dowland's In Darkness Let Me Dwell.
Nobody could begrudge the American composer George Crumb (who will appear in the concert of December 16th) his reputation as a master of scoring and musical allusion. His Vox Balaenea (1971) for flute, scordatura cello and prepared piano is a beautiful, inventive work in three movements. Its hinting at things, rather than quoting or illustrating them, is reinforced by its designation "for three masked players". There were no masks, but this sensitive performance was utterly absorbing.
Cliona Doris (harp) plays music by Murray Schafer and Donnacha Dennehy at the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre on November 25th at 1.15 p.m. Admission is free.